


I Don't Go to Sleep to Dream

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: lovers from the moon [12]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: (but he doesn't mind doing it), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Jonah discovers yet another marital duty, Kinga doesn't like this, Max goes on an overnight trip, Multi, Nightmares, married life is kind of weird when all the people in the marriage are weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 12:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12864369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: When Max goes away for a nerdy hobby he hasn't been able to indulge in too long, Jonah and Kinga are left alone for the first time in... basically their entire relationship. This is fine, right up until a problem arises that Max is used to handling and Jonah has no experience with whatsoever.





	I Don't Go to Sleep to Dream

**Author's Note:**

> oh hey when things I've been referring to all along actually come back around. it's almost like I'm a Real Writer.

“I’ll be back in two days,” Max said, kissing Kinga sweetly before turning his face up for a kiss from Jonah. “You’ll hardly miss me.”

“That’s what you think,” Kinga said sulkily. “I don’t remember the last time you left me.”

“No? You should, it was for the same reason I’m leaving now.”

“Good luck,” Jonah said. “I know you’ve been out of the game for a while.”

“I’ve been keeping my skills sharp online,” Max said. “I don’t expect to win, but it’d be nice to place. I’ve missed playing with a physical deck so much.” He slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and picked up his overnight bag. “Take care of her for me,” he told Jonah.

“Of course I will.”

“And you take care of him for me,” he told Kinga, who smirked.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep him thoroughly occupied.” 

“I love you both. Don’t burn down the country while I’m gone.”

“I make no promises,” Kinga said, and Jonah covered her mouth with one hand, laughing.

“Love you too. I’ll keep her in line,” he promised. She bit his hand and he yelped and let go.

“I’m sure you will,” Max said dryly, and got in the elevator. Kinga turned to give Jonah a narrow-eyed look.

“Trying to silence me?”

“As if that would ever work,” Jonah said. “No, of course not. Just being playful. But if it bothers you I won’t do it again.”

“You’ll get bitten every time you do it.”

“Okay, then I won’t do it.” They’d been staying in the same extravagant hotel suite since they came back to Earth almost two months before, but the place immediately seemed much larger and emptier without Max’s presence there. Jonah sat down on the couch and looked around a little absently. “Is this the first time we’ve been alone together since we got married?”

“This is the first time we’ve been alone together since we started dating,” Kinga corrected him. “At least, alone in the place we live, for more than a couple hours.” She sat down next to him and curled her legs up underneath her, sighing softly. “He was right, though. The last time he left me for a whole weekend was for a Magic tournament back in... jeez, 2011?”

“Why didn’t you go with him?”

“He was going with his friends,” she said. “And I’d have been bored to tears. He’s played Magic since we were kids but I still don’t find it interesting. He taught me how to play while we were still at Gizmonics but it’s just not my thing.”

“Well, you definitely shouldn’t be going into a convention center now,” Jonah said, wrapping an arm around her. She immediately cuddled up to him and sighed again.

“Neither should he! It’s a security risk. Who knows what someone might do to him.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s got Terry for a bodyguard, plus I think you’re forgetting how popular we all are these days.”

“Yeah, but—”

“ _Especially_ Max, especially in a room full of nerds. People think he’s just the sweetest.”

“Well, he is just the sweetest.”

“I know. I’m glad everyone else knows it now too.” 

It had only been a little over a month since Kinga had turned her lovers into emperors, but the number of interviews they’d done collectively and individually since then was a little staggering. Jonah was particularly fond of the one he’d done with Wired talking about being a Gizmocrat and science on the verge of madness and the drive to create, not least because after it was published Gizmonics credited him for his thesis work on the percussion propulsion drive and finally allowed him his doctorate, making him the first Doctor Forrester in this generation of the family, a fact that made Kinga equally sullen for herself and proud about him. Max’s favorite interview had been with the Nerdist podcast, getting to be enthusiastic about all his hobbies and even more enthusiastic about his spouses. Kinga, of course, loved all the time she’d spent on the cover of the New York Times, first for taking power, then for the wedding. The coverage of the wedding had been particularly flattering for everyone involved. 

One of the results of this media blitz was that the geeks of the country had rallied around their fanboy-in-chief, which made Max very confused but also very delighted. Jonah wasn’t about to admit that he kept that podcast episode on his phone just to listen to Max laugh and the excitement in his voice as he talked about being in love. He was, however, pretty sure that Max would be safe at the Magic tournament, half because Terry looked kind of scary and the Bonehead was overprotective, half because Max was literally the nerd emperor walking among his people.

“Is it dumb that I miss him already?” Kinga asked.

“He might not even have left the building yet, it’s been barely five minutes,” Jonah said, but he held her a little tighter and added, “it’s not dumb, I miss him too.”

“He’s going to be fine, right?”

“I’ll keep telling you that he’s going to be fine, but if I really have to repeat it every two minutes it might become wearisome.”

“Distract me then,” she said, looking up at him plaintively. “I’m not used to being the one worrying. Usually that’s his job in this relationship.”

“That’s because you’re very worrisome,” he said, cupping her cheek. “What would you like to do? We’ve got a few hours to kill tonight.” She turned her head to bite his thumb, and he huffed a laugh. “What would you like to do besides use me as a chew toy?”

“Buzzkill,” she said. “Do you... maybe want to work on some schematics together? I saw that you were working on scaling down the percussion propulsion drive for personal vehicles instead of industrial ones.”

“Snoop.”

“Excuse me for being able to see your tablet screen when you’re in bed next to me.” She pouted. “If you don’t want me to—”

“I didn’t say that,” he said hastily. “Yeah, if you want to review what I’ve got so far, of course you can. I just thought with our different specialties that you might not—” He closed his mouth very quickly at the glare she gave him, going wide-eyed. 

“Might not what?”

“Be interested in engineering problems,” he said meekly. “I definitively was not going to say that you might not understand it. Jeez, you look like you want to bite my head off.”

“Oh,” she said, expression smoothing out. “Okay. I’m not an engineer, but I understood enough of it when I was looking it over before you sent it off for review.”

“I have a few thoughts about Kingachrome, if we want to trade specs...”

“Well, you did manage to hack the feed back on the SOL. It’d be interesting to see what you could do given full access.” She leaned up to give him a conciliatory kiss. “My tablet’s in the bedroom, if you could grab it for me.”

“I could,” he said, and didn’t move. She pursed her lips at him and sighed.

“Please?”

“And he said you couldn’t be taught.”

“Shut up.” He was laughing when he got off the couch, still laughing a minute later when he came back with both their tablets in hand. “Shut up!”

“You don’t have to be extra rude to make up for being polite, you know,” he said, sitting down and handing hers over. 

“You’re rude.”

“Am I?”

“You totally are.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be.” She gave him a weird look and he shook his head. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said, but she settled back against his side and looked down at her tablet with a slight smile. 

“You are a profoundly confusing woman,” he said fondly, and her smile widened. She quickly brought up the Kingachrome files and passed the tablet to him, receiving his with the drive schematics on the screen. After a little bit of rearranging, they got themselves comfortable with Kinga tucked between Jonah and the back of the couch and his long legs practically reaching the other end of the couch, and settled in for some science.

For all the things that might be said about either of them, one undeniable fact was that they were both true Gizmocrats, holding science as a passion and not a mere interest. Mostly they quietly studied each other’s work, asking now and then for clarification or explanation, and that kept them busy until Kinga dropped the tablet in her lap mid-sentence, stretched, almost catching Jonah right on the nose with one hand, and yawned. He caught her hand at the last second and eased it away from his face, and she looked up at him almost apologetically. “So I think that might help with the miniaturization,” she said, and he nodded.

“Seems sound to me. I’ll have to take it into the lab... once we have a lab.”

“Soon,” she said.

“There’s no way around the major issue of Kingachrome that I can figure out, but I do think you can boost the resolution, at least,” he said, swapping his tablet for hers and pointing out the chemical equation he’d been working on. “And I honestly think that its unwieldy nature is a feature, not a bug, as far as you’re concerned. Because you love to make things difficult.”

“I really do.” She checked the tablet and her brows arched. “Have we actually been at this that long?”

“Time flies when you’re having fun, and science is fun,” Jonah said. “You look tired, though.”

“I am tired.” 

“May I take you to bed?”

“You’re my husband, I don’t think you need to ask permission so formally.”

“I’m trying to prove that I’m not rude,” he said with a laugh, standing up and then scooping her up into his arms. She yelped in surprise and clung to him while he carried her into the bedroom.

“You just like manhandling me,” she accused.

“Yeah, and you love it.” He set her down gently on the bed and grinned at her. “And this is hardly manhandling. I’m being very gentle.”

“Too gentle,” she said. “I’m not fragile.”

“Are you sure? You look more fragile than you did a couple weeks ago,” he said, one hand spreading carefully over her belly. She scowled at him.

“Being pregnant doesn’t make me fragile. Being pregnant makes me an emotional wreck, but I’m not fragile.”

“Whether you think so or not, I’m still going to treat you like a Faberge egg.”

“ _Ugh_ ,” she said in a tone of pure disgust. “Don’t you dare.”

“What?”

“You’re not allowed to handle me with kid gloves. That’s so unsatisfying.”

“Oh, I guess that your satisfaction _is_ one of my marital duties, huh?”

“You’re damn right it is.”

“What’s your wish, then?” 

“Well... right now I just want to go to bed,” she said, tugging his hand. “And I need you to curl up with if I’m ever going to get to sleep.”

“Wait, I know what’s going to happen,” he said. “You’re going to try to spoon me and it’s not going to work twice as hard as it usually does and you’re going to get grumpy about it and maybe cry and I’ll have to console you and—”

“Shut up,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not what’s going to happen.”

“No?”

“Not now it isn’t. I have something to prove now.”

“Of course,” he said, laughing. “God forbid you ever be predictable.”

“Shut up and put your pajamas on and get in bed with me.” 

“As you wish,” he said playfully, changing into pajama pants and taking his usual place on the left side of the bed. She tucked herself under his arm and laid her head on his shoulder, sighing deeply with her nose against his neck.

“This is weird,” she said after a few moments with the lights turned off. “You breathe differently than Max does.”

“Well, yeah, I’m a much different shape than him.”

“Obviously, but I don’t remember the last time I’ve fallen asleep without him.”

“It’s okay to miss him. I miss him too.”

“Not the same way I do.”

“I know...” He kissed the top of her head. “What can I do to help you feel comfortable?”

“I am comfortable. I’m safe with you. I’ll be fine, it’ll just take some time to fall asleep.” Jonah gently rubbed her back, and she sighed again and settled against him with one arm and one leg stretched over him. He expected it to take a lot longer, from how she talked about it, but she fell asleep before he did.

Jonah woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, jolted out of sleep and not sure why for a second. Then Kinga whimpered again, clutching him harder, shaking her head slightly.

“No... no...” She gasped and her fingers dug into his arm painfully hard. “Don’t touch him!” Jonah’s eyes widened. Kinga had mentioned her nightmares before, but Jonah had never caught her having one in the months they’d been sharing a bed. He had no idea how many nights Max woke her up in the middle of the night when she had a bad dream, because Jonah tended to sleep like a rock, especially compared to his spouses. He tightened his arm around her, turning to face her.

“Kinga...” She tossed her head and whimpered again, and he shook her gently. “Kinga, wake up, honey...”

“Leave him alone, I’m the one you want.” Jonah winced when her nails raked his skin.

“Kinga! Wake up!” He shook her a little harder and her eyes shot open. Her breathing was harsh and panicked. “You were having a nightmare,” he said softly, and her tight grip on him relaxed.

“Fuck,” she said shakily. “They took Max... they were going to k-kill him...” She buried her face in his shoulder, trembling with tears. “Oh, fuck, that was bad.”

“Shh, it’s okay.” He rubbed her back, cuddling her closer. “Max is fine, it was just a bad dream.”

“You d-d-don’t know that.”

“I’m pretty sure of it. I don’t think your nightmares are premonitions. They haven’t been before, have they?”

“N-no...” Jonah looked over her, squinting to read the clock glowing in the darkness.

“It’s only midnight. He might still be awake if he was meeting his friends in Philly tonight. Do you want to check up on him?”

“Yeah.” Jonah grabbed one of their phones off the bedside, tried to unlock it, then pushed it into her hand. She unlocked it and called Max immediately, her hand shaking as she held the phone to her ear. It rang three times.

“What’s wrong?” Max answered the phone already concerned. “Kinga, are you okay?”

“I’m... I’m fine,” she sighed. “I had a dream you were about to be killed.”

“Everything’s fine here,” he said. “Well, except for the number of shots Jake is trying to get me to do. He seems to think we’re still in our twenties.” She sniffled and laughed, and his voice gentled. “Is Jonah taking good care of you?”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“Uh-huh.” Kinga put the phone on speaker and put it on the pillow between them.

“Hey,” Jonah said.

“I’m sorry, I should have warned you,” Max said. “I forgot that you haven’t dealt with her nightmares before.”

“I’ve never even woken up when she’s had one, you always handle them before I know anything’s wrong.”

“That’s because I wake her up as soon as she starts to get restless.”

“When do you sleep?”

“At night,” Max said dryly. “Just not as deeply as you do. And she’s usually wrapped around me so I can tell as soon as her breathing changes. But I’ve had years to hone my nightmare detection skills. You’re an amateur yet.”

“I’ll get better at it,” Jonah said. “Hopefully quickly.”

“You should be fine for the rest of the night, it’s really rare for her to have more than one a night.”

“These are extenuating circumstances,” Kinga said. “I miss you.” 

“I miss you too, but I swear no one’s going to try to kill me, unless it’s through alcohol poisoning. People keep insisting on buying me drinks, it’s really weird.”

“Don’t drink too much,” Jonah said. “You don’t want a hangover making you slow during the tournament tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry, I know my limits,” Max said. “I’ll be all right. I promise.”

“Look at how domesticated he is,” the spouses could hear someone behind Max say. “Who knew he’d be so thoroughly tamed by marriage?”

“Shut the fuck up, Tony,” Max said. “I’ve been this domesticated for years, you morons just didn’t see it happening.”

“Oooh,” a different voice said. “Tell him, Max. Stand up for us married ones.”

“I’m going to go tell my friends off now,” Max said into the phone. “I love you both. Sleep well.”

“Love you too,” Jonah said.

“Give ‘em hell, honey,” Kinga said. “Love you. Good night.” The phone disconnected, and Jonah and Kinga looked at each other in the dim glow of the screen. “I’m okay,” she said.

“Reassured?”

“Yes.”

“Still tired?”

“Not so much. I think I’m going to get up and put something on Netflix.”

“Want me to come with?”

“No, you can go back to sleep. I’ll come back to bed in a little while.” 

“Are you sure? It’s not an imposition...”

“I mean it. Go back to sleep.” She kissed his forehead. “I just need to get my mind off the dream before I can fall back asleep. Don’t worry about me.”

“Worrying about you is definitely one of my marital duties.”

“Yeah, but I’m telling you that it’s not necessary now.”

“Well, wait, I think I have something that’ll help us both.” He reached for his phone and scrolled through his podcasts until he reached the one that Max had done. He turned it on and she gave him a questioning look that turned into wide eyes at the sound of Max’s voice.

“Oh... yes, okay,” she said, and curled up against him again with a sigh. “Yeah, this should work.”

“What’s my favorite nerd franchise? Oh, jeez, we’re going to be here a while,” Max said on the podcast, and she huffed a laugh and rearranged herself back into her usual clingy sleeping position. Jonah kissed her hair and cuddled her closer. They were both fast asleep in minutes with Max’s cheerful voice in their ears, and there were no more bad dreams that night.


End file.
